Vecta on mobiles and health

Vecta Consulting

Vecta on Mobile Phones and Health

The value of mobile phones must exceed our perception of any damage they may be causing us.

No large-scale study has yet reported on the potential hazards of mobile phone usage and their technology is evolving sufficiently quickly that we may never know the results before we have moved on to something else.

In any case, perhaps this is just another hazard of everyday life that we must accept in order to gain the undoubted benefits.

After all, noone bans the car yet we kill nearly 5000 people on UK roads every year - and we are one of the safest countries. We effectively ban nuclear that has only limited - albeit very large - potential to kill yet allow widespread consumption of fossil fuels that is already causing climate changes that routinely kill tens of thousands of people each year.

Long term mobile users have, according to a recent Swedish (Karolinska Institute) study, a doubled risk of developing a benign tumour that causes deafness and loss of balance before it has eventually to be removed surgically. This study compared life-styles of 150 acoustic neuroma patients and 600 tumour-free controls.

A larger study (Interphone) is examinig the mobile life-styles of 6000 patients with brain tumours, 1000 with acoustic neuroma, 600 with salivary gland tumours and a number of matched controls.

Risks can be reduced:

Spend fewer minutes on mobile, especially when the signal is weak and radiation increases
Reduce radiation, use a low SAR (specific absorption rate) phone
Use a hands-free kit whenever possible; otherwise move the phone a little further from the ear
Discourage youngsters from mobile usage; they will be exposed for longer and have more sensitive tissue.

Industry is not idle:

Handsets now conform to international SAR guidelines
Industry repsonds quickly to specific government recommendations
Industry supports research and publishes the findings
Industry now cooperates more in mast and base station siting

Current concerns include long term exposure, especially by children, to radiating handsets and antennae.

Mobile phone use is a risk, but one we have to weigh up with everything else in our daily lives. While we can, and should, do sensible things to minimise our exposure, we need to be rational. Otherwise, in our search for perfect safety, we can make a utility so expensive that we can barely afford it and allow more hazardous alternatives to prevail.

Motor cars v. railways? Nuclear power v. coal?

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More info from:

Terry.Moore@vecta5.com

Vecta Consulting Limited, Mulberry House, 2 The Spinney,
Cottenham, CAMBRIDGE, CB24 8RN
Tel: +44 (0) 1954 250222, Fax: +44 (0) 1954 252333

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